The Die is Cast

Splashes of water struck my scalp, awakening me from my dream. The smell of charred wood filled my body, forcing me into immediate action. A quick look around revealed the ship had been attacked and heavily damaged. Another ambush.

I shouted every name I knew who was on the ship, but no one answered. At the end of my list was the pegasus Tedori. At least he responded. He remained below deck, continuing to stomp his hooves into the wood frantically. As far as I could recall, my sword also remained below decks.

I hoped one of the two entrances to the decks below remained intact. The entire bow of the ship was under the water, so my bets had to be hedged on the one at the far stern. Venturing into the bowels of the ship revealed that the stern had not sustained nearly as much damage as I had feared. Still a bit groggy from my unexpected nap, I decided to rescue Tedori first. Finding him was the easy part compared to finding my sword; he made lots of noise.

“Why didn't they come and get you when they decided to leave?” I asked the pegasus. Of course, he only responded by stomping his hooves louder and faster and by crying out. Thanks to his constant noisemaking, he was quite easy to find, exactly where he was meant to stay. The elves had modified the interior of two of the ships to give Tedori and Bochi their own rooms. The ship itself was strangely empty other than the two of us.

Tedori cried again as I released him from his restraints, though his tone became much more cheerful upon seeing me.

“We need to get out of here,” I told the pegasus. He agreed, running out to the top deck before I had any chance to follow.

I would have done so, but I had forgotten about my sword. “Where did Giorg say he hid my sword?” A feeling of doom crashed over me as I realized he never did reveal the location of the sword. I had to search through every room that was still at least somewhat intact. My allies had been awfully fast when it came to leaving me behind. None of them felt any need to tell me where my sword was. Perhaps they might have expected me to wake up from my nap quickly and join them in the fighting later. It still would have been nice for them to let me know about the sword.

“Seven heavens,” I said to myself as I approached the water once more. The fear of the worst case scenario haunted my mind. I was going to have to swim for it…

Or so I thought. After taking a deep breath to calm myself, I took another look at the water. The sword was floating on the surface, just barely beyond my reach. I had to go into the water, but getting wet was but a small price to pay for retrieving my weapon.

“You never seem to be far away,” I told my sword.

By the time I made it to the top deck, Tedori had disappeared. I had no way of knowing where Bochi was or whether they let her loose. After looking around, I saw the massive city of Wast loom over me. Neither gate nor walls impeded our entry into the city.

Fighting had broken out across the entire city, though I could not tell if friend or foe had the advantage. Man and demon alike fell victim to the ravages of war as fire and arrows swarmed through the streets and metal clashed fiercely with metal. The city roared with the horrors of battle. Fire and smoke made it harder for me to pinpoint anyone in particular amidst the fighting.

“Tedori!” I shouted. “Bochi! To me!”

Only Tedori responded to my call. Bochi remained nowhere to be seen or heard. I feared the worst, but had to keep moving. My friends and allies were in grave danger. I could feel it rattling in my bones.

Taking to the skies did not help in the slightest when it came to observing the battle. The smoke, however, did provide one hidden benefit: we were concealed from most of the demons who may have wanted to attack us. A few archers were posted high in the upper levels of certain buildings in the city, but my Lightning Bolt attack dealt with them easily.

“Tedori, Holy Wind!”

The pegasus flapped its wings, unleashing a powerful blast of air that pushed down towards the ground. With each beat of its wings, a little more fire and smoke dissipated. As we continued to blow the smoke away, I heard a distant neigh, too faint for it to be Tedori. At first, I suspected it to be horses on the ground, but Tedori alerted me to someone's presence with a loud shriek. Hovering over the other end of the city was Bochi, who had been released from her restraints. She quickly began flapping her wings alongside Tedori. The magical power of two pegasi forced the flames and smoke aside with ease.

The retreating smoke revealed that the fighting had largely concentrated itself into a large arena. That must have been the Fighting Pits that Ipas informed me about. Ipas…

With the smoke cleared, I could seek out my allies with no problem. First was Gihri, who had been abandoned in a far corner of the city. Even from a distance, he showed signs of being gravely injured. As I got closer to him, the injuries made themselves clear. He had taken three arrows to the torso and one more to the shoulder. Though he lingered in pain he still had his own bow in his hands and tried to fire off arrows at any demon he could find.

“Gihri…” I whispered to him.

“Zikatta…” Gihri groaned. “You were right…”

“Gihri, stay with me,” I told him. “We need to get you -”

“There's no chance,” he replied with a weary whisper. “We walked right into a trap. Our ships are destroyed. We're stuck here…”

Gihri's breathing became weak and faint. The fight was leaving him quickly.

“Your father is going to have my head if you die here,” I told him.

“Then… tell him I did this to myself,” the elf prince answered. “Tell him I died with a bow in my hands.”

“You're not going anywhere,” I told him. “We need to get you back to safety.”

“That is exactly where I'm going,” Gihri replied. “Or at least I hope so… May the High Lord grant me entrance to Paradise…” He let out one last painful sigh and no more.

“Ayya…” I said to myself as I stared at Gihri's collapsed body. “You will pay for this. Tedori, to me!”

The pegasus returned to the ground, allowing me to climb back onto him. Our destination was the Fighting Pits, with my hope being placed in my friends and son still being alive and fighting there. Assuming that the demons had led them there to continue the fighting, Ayya would have been there as well.

The Fighting Pits were large enough to fit several thousand people in the arena alone, albeit tightly packed like a swarm of bees. Friends and enemies mixed into each other in this crowded mess, forcing everyone to be constantly aware of their surroundings as they fought, lest they find themselves plunging their weapons into their allies by mistake. A gruesome scene played out before me, one much worse than any I had ever seen in all my years of fighting. To my relief, Ipas, Giorg, and Rikkos had grouped together towards the center of the swarm, still fighting valiantly and relatively unharmed. Rikkos even had his armored cat with him, swatting away several demons with a single stroke.

I flew Tedori down towards them, using mine and his magical attacks to carefully sweep away any demons who strayed too close. With the four of us together once more, Ipas scolded me by asking, “What took you so long?”

“Dark magic,” I explained to her. “The Demon Lord had me trapped in a dream while he led you into this trap.

“Where's Gihri?” Giorg asked. “What happened to him?”

“He's gone,” I answered, refusing to elaborate. More demons began to swarm around us, attempting to encircle us so they could have their way. Tedori and other nearby soldiers did their best to keep them at bay, but there were simply too many of them.

“Friends of my father,” Rikkos said as he slashed at several demons from close range, “it has been an honor fighting by your side.”

“It's not over yet,” I told my son. “Where is Ayya?”

“His throne is over that way,” Ipas pointed. We were close. Perhaps we were close enough that he could see and even hear me. High above the tangled mess of men and demons, I managed to find Ayya sitting on his throne. He looked right at me through that stag helmet of his, and I looked at him right back.

“Ayya!” I shouted at him with all my might.